Under the Same Moon

Adrian Alonso hits the road in search of his mom in Under the Same Moon (Fox Searchlight)

Under the Same Moon/La Misma Luna is the kind of film I hate to review because it's a small, independent work that is earnest and sincere with an adorable child performance at the heart of its warm family tale. Yet it's also seriously flawed. But to criticize it just seems mean-spirited. Under the Same Moon (opening March 19 in limited release in San Diego) was the opening night feature for the San Diego Latino Film Festival earlier this month. It played to an embracing full house but surprisingly did not nab the Audience Award, which instead went to another heart-warming tale of parents and offspring, El Brindis from Chile.

SDLFF Highlight: Lorena Velazquez

Last chance to see Lorena Velazquez on the big screen at the SDLFF. (UNAM)

If you weren't at the San Diego Latino Film Festival last Friday for the 1966 sci-fi cult classic El Planeta de las Mujeres Invasoras/Planet of Invading Women then you missed seeing its star Lorena Velazquez in person. The statuesque Mexican actress still looked great at 68 and draped in multiple strands of pearls. In her comments after the film, she said that we need "the old Mexican glamour back." Well she certainly provided a dose of that glamour at the festival as she accepted an award from SDLFF founder Ethan Van Thillo. Although she will not appear at the festival again, you do have the chance to catch her in the 1960 film La Nave de Los Monstruos/Ship of Monsters Friday March 14 at 10pm. (Listen to her description of the film.) This film surpasses El Planeta de las Mujeres Invasoras to deliver a delightful sci-fi romp complete with space babes in bathing suits, robots, assorted monsters and a singing Mexican cowboy. I had a chance to interview her before the screening.

SDLFF: Festival Update

 
An accident leads to strange happenings in Kilometro 31 (DistriMax)

I have spent the last few days watching films at the San Diego Latino Film Festival's opening weekend. Films continue through March 16 at the Ultrastar Mission Valley Theaters at Hazard Center with a closing night tribute to Cheech Marin. Marin's Born in East L.A. celebrates it 20th anniversary and the festival will honor Marin with an award. Executive director Ethan Van Thillo says, "there is so much focus on Spanish language films and filmmakers like Gael Garcia Bernal and Alejandro González Iñárritu, but we also have to support U.S. produced Latino films and Born in East L.A. was a very important Chicano film, starring a Chicano, directed by a Chicano, and we want to keep on supporting U.S. Latino filmmakers too." The Festival was a bustling place with a number of sellout screenings, including the one for Gael Garcia Bernal's directorial debut Deficit. But you can catch the Mexican star in Hector Babenco's new film O Passado on Thursday night. But I suggest getting there early. Listen to my Film Chat for an update on the festival.

SDLFF Highlight: La Zona

La Zona screens Sunday March 9 at the San Diego Latino Film Festival. (Wild Bunch)

By Carlos Sepulveda

La Zona (screening March 9 at 10:00 as part of the San Diego Latino Film Festival) opens with a mysterious outlook that we later understand and grieve. The movie takes place in Mexico City, in a community inside the city that is purposely isolated from the poor slums by its rich inhabitants. The community is called La Zona, a place where the rich and the high middle class live. La Zona is separated by towering walls and protected by cameras intended to keep the petty out.

During a storm three young thieves manage to break into La Zona. Things become complicated once they are on the other side of the wall. In their attempt to steal, they murder a woman and are later caught by her neighbors. Two of the burglars are shot and killed. The third one manages to escape but is still trapped inside La Zona. So the manhunt begins for this burglar whom we later learn more about. This film's message, ideas and originality make it worth watching.

The director, Rodrigo Pla, does a great job as he shows how people change and act in times of fear and terror. The members of the community become very scared and alarmed when they realize that one of the burglars is still inside the premises. In times of fear and confusion people lose trust and turn against each other.

The film succeeds in portraying a real and present time Mexico -- a Mexico that is inundated with corruption and crime. In this film you can see what the country is really like and how business is handled. When thinking critically of the film, I realized that La Zona is very similar to the United States in the present time of war and terror. Fear and confusion have also grown in the U.S. after 9/11. People have become scared and alarmed. Some have lost trust in the Government and also turned against each other as they believe that the "enemy" is within us, just like in the movie. I feel that the U.S., like La Zona, is slowly isolating itself from the outside world. The fear pressed on its citizens by the government have made it a country that doesn't welcome people anymore as it used to before 9/11 -- a country that is gradually becoming more hostile and violent. La Zona is a great movie to go see. It is very real and relevant.

The San Diego Latino Film Festival was a great experience. It was my first time attending and I had the honor to meet, Julio Bracho, a well known Mexican actor. I had the opportunity to speak to him about the festival and his thoughts about the Latino Community.

"The Latino Film Festival permeates the Latino Community with its ideas as well as those who want to learn more about the culture," Julio Bracho said as he signed many autographs. The festival had many works of art displayed that were created by Latino artists. At the festival you have the chance to meet with some of the actors and directors in the movies showcased. It was a great opportunity to learn about movies being made outside the U.S. Instead of going to your regular movie theatre, consider going to the Latino Film Festival and experience a film from a different point of view. 

  -- Carlos Sepulveda is a senior currently attending Mount Miguel High. Carlos enjoys reading in his spare time and running. He is most interested in history, politics and world issues. Carlos likes to watch foreign films, comedies and dramas.

15th Annual San Diego Latino Film Festival

Under the Same Moon kicks off the 15th San Diego Latino Film Festival (Fox Searchlight)

The San Diego Latino Film Festival celebrates its Quinceanera this year, and how wonderfully it has come of age. It has grown up into a stellar event, this year showcasing more than a hundred films with some 120 guests. That's a long way from its humble beginnings as a small student festival. The festival is sponsored by the Media Arts Center San Diego, which, through its Golden Hill home base, also provides facilities to train young people in filmmaking so that they can tell their stories. The festival kicks off tonight with the San Diego premiere of Under the Same Moon/La Misma Luna on its big Macy's screen at the Ultrastar Mission Valley Cinemas at Hazard Center). Directed by Patricia Riggen, the film concerns a young boy who comes to the U.S. from Mexico in order to find his mother after his grandma dies. This film will open theatrically in San Diego after the festival, but many of the other films playing have no U.S. release planned so this will be your only opportunity to catch some of these great movies. You will also have an opportunity to see the works of the Media Art Center's Teen Producers, who are poised to be the filmmakers of tomorrow. Listen to the festival's executive director Ethan Van Thillo and I talk about this year's event with Tom Fudge on These Days.

The Orphanage

The Orphanage (Picturehouse) 

If you have ever seen or met Guillermo Del Toro at the San Diego Comic-Con, then you know he's a filmmaker who is sincere about two things: championing the horror genre and helping young filmmakers. I was meeting up with Del Toro at the Comic-Con for an interview a few years back and was impressed by the fact that he took time to speak with filmmakers who came up to him after his panel. He also willingly accepted DVDs of their work. In fact, at one point he turned to his assistant and asked, in reference to the DVDs that had just been handed to him, "where are my treasures?" Now I've seen filmmakers toss the DVDs handed to them at the Comic-Con, but not Del Toro. And he apparently even watches them as well, although he says it may take some time before he gets to each. Now Del Toro shows his support for both horror and neophyte filmmakers by producing the feature debut of Spainish director J.A. Bayona and writer Sergio G. Snchez, El Orphanato/The Orphanage (opening January 4 at Landmark's Hillcrest Cinemas).

If you are familiar with Del Toro's work then you can immediately see why he would be eager to support Bayona, Snchez and The Orphanage. Snchez' story has much in common with Del Toro's The Devil's Backbone. Both deal with orphan children and the supernatural in unexpected ways. Both Bayona and Snchez then approach this ghost story with the same kind of humanism as Del Toro. But The Orphanage does not come off as a Del Toro imitation. Bayona and Snchez imprint their own unique stamp on the film and reveal themselves as promising filmmakers.